Social policies designed
to protect female workers and promote workplace equality have controversial
effects on labor market outcomes. Working-hour restrictions and mandated maternity
benefits help to safeguard women’s family responsibilities and ensure their
physical security, but these regulations can raise the cost to firms of hiring
women. Equal pay and equal opportunity measures potentially increase women’s
relative earnings and reduce occupational segregation, but they are difficult
to implement and enforce. Finally, although not explicitly designed to target
women’s well-being or equality, seemingly "gender-blind" policies can also yield
different outcomes for men and women. This study presents a theoretical context
for understanding the impact of these various labor market policies on women’s
employment, wages, and working hours. Existing empirical evidence of policy
effects and current policy incidence are both reviewed. The study concludes
by reporting new empirical evidence from three developing country case studies.

This paper is part of
a series of papers on selected topics commissioned for the forthcoming Policy
Research Report (PRR) on Gender and Development. The PRR is being carried out
by Elizabeth King and Andrew Mason and co-sponsored by the World Bank’s Development
Economics Research Group and the Gender and Development Group of the Poverty
Reduction and Economic Management Network. Printed copies of this paper are
available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433.
Please contact Owen Haaga, in room MC8-434 or at Gnetwork@worldbank.org.
Comments are welcome and should be sent directly to the author(s) atyvrodg@wm.edu.